Learning and Literacy - today skills needed would include reading and writing, but now also keyboard typing, search skills, and discernment. Value biases are acquired outside of formal schooling, or should be a family-first function, with schooling being focused on best practices for skill development, and in later schooling years, discernment between sophistry/propaganda and useful, fair content. THERE IS AN ANOKA-HENNEPIN SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION THIS COMING TUESDAY. NOV. 4

 With the web and myriad podcasting, oral discernment is also a skill learners need. The late Charlie Kirk used multiple ways of biasing his "debates" in his favor, including such a simple thing as having his mic louder so that his interruptions of others were stronger. There was more, content and viewpoint shifting, and all, but now oral learning and literacy skills, including a hoped for ability at discernment of true and false, are fundamental skills in the Internet Age. 

Rote learning and blind acceptance of policy argument are of far lesser importance. Making students more amenable to propaganda serves no useful purpose whatsoever. Or at least that is the Crabgrass outlook. Moreover, one of the most disastrous "schooling" approaches is to have biases and to suggest cirricula should from infancy onward be reinforcing of any one view of a one true way, or us and them constraint to where diversity is viewed as a superior/inferior dichotomy.

There is some science to learning. This part of the post will be selective, not aiming at treatise length but at giving some sense of where we are today. The aim is toward a general public awareness that more may be known than thought to be the case. So a sampling of stuff Crabgrass found interesting -

Frontiers - How does literacy break mirror invariance in the visual system?

Brain Pathways -  Researchgate.net - Same consideration.

Try the search =Brain pathways for mirror discrimination learning during literacy acquisition

Texas Center for Learning Disabilities -   July 2015: Behavioral and Cerebral Changes Induced by Reading Acquisition (This is of special interest here because the blog author suffers as a slow reader, possibly with dyslexia which was not a consideration back during my early schooling, with more knowledge having accumulated since then)

The journal, SCIENCE -  which seems to be pivotal to the question of brain adaptation upon literacy acquisition, with the entire pdf of the eleven page item available online here

 NATURE, here, here and here, showing specific lines of professional inquiry

Last - Google Scholar, linking to an online available 265p text, "Orality and Literacy," with the GS tag:

Walter J. Ong’s classic work provides a fascinating insight into the social effects of oral, written, printed and electronic technologies, and their impact on philosophical, theological, scientific and literary thought. This thirtieth anniversary edition – coinciding with Ong’s centenary year – reproduces his best-known and most influential book in full and brings it up to date with two new exploratory essays by cultural writer and critic John Hartley. Hartley provides: A scene-setting chapter that situates Ong’s work within the historical and disciplinary context of post-war Americanism and the rise of communication and media studies; A closing chapter that follows up Ong’s work on orality and literacy in relation to evolving media forms, with a discussion of recent criticisms of Ong’s approach, and an assessment of his concept of the ‘evolution of consciousness’; Extensive references to recent scholarship on orality, literacy and the study of knowledge technologies, tracing changes in how we know what we know. These illuminating essays contextualize Ong within recent intellectual history, and display his work’s continuing force in the ongoing study of the relationship between literature and the media, as well as that of psychology, education and sociological thought.

(cited by over 25,000 other works, so that the return list of those will ground you well, as far as you go) 

 

The above is a deep dive into a narrowly constrained single question of brain change, something most readers likely never thought to consider in an ordered way, before. Representative of concentrated knowledge professions can acquire beyond the general knowledge of the average smart person's understandings. 

 There is then actual brain science that specialists in learning may know much more about that the average person off the street, whatever that person's politics may be, there is science.

Why even post of this in what is mainly an argumentative and policy oriented blog? Because school boards impose policy by selection of senior administrative personnel, which percolates into classroom teacher HR biaes, and to whether students are indoctrinated or educated. 

Board candidates favoring indoctrination are a public concern, where those wanting that can make strong arguments to certian mindsets, but where the aim always, in Minnesota at least,  has a Constitutional aim to demanding public education for all young persons, The Minnesota State Constitution stating:

ARTICLE XIII

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS

Section 1. Uniform system of public schools.

The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.

Sec. 2. Prohibition as to aiding sectarian school.

In no case shall any public money or property be appropriated or used for the support of schools wherein the distinctive doctrines, creeds or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect are promulgated or taught.

Sec. 3. University of Minnesota.

All the rights, immunities, franchises and endowments heretofore granted or conferred upon the University of Minnesota are perpetuated unto the university.

As to the above Sec. 2, there is federal judicial interpretation which is a separate story altogether, but saying it is at play is sufficient for this presentation, and other places and opinions are out there. That is enough for here and now. Knight of Malta Lenard Leo has had a hand in top court judicial appointments, and whether that is a good or bad thing can be the subject of discourse apart from this post.

The focus here is that the University is so important that at the dawn of statehood it got due consideration, and that public schooling was appended to the somewhat vain hope for "intelligence of the people" in order that "a republican form of government depending mainly upon" such intelligence eisting and being tuned by public education so that a representative form of government might best prosper. 

The dimensions thought most significant when the Constitution was passed - public education being a most important  goal aimed to be: general and uniform, systemic, thourough and efficient, were noted, yet where local control of multiple local school boards often leads to such high goals falling to doctrinal minds, in error, and leading to less than best for the students. 

The Anoka- Hennepin School District election day is this coming Tuesday;  Nov. 4, 2025. For Election Day guidance see MN Sec of State website, here. Voting during regular hours, Monday, Nov 3, at County Hall in Anoka is an option - the sole remaining early voting day left. Either way, inform yourselves about candidates to vote intelligently.

That is the district I live in, sub-district 4, of six districts, three on the ballot, within the overall District itself. I took advantage of early voting already, and voted for Abbey Payeur, in my mind the better candidate of two. The more capable person.  

So policy among voters matters. The aim in school board elections should be best educational outcome,  and not constraining students to be channeled to become like bottom feeding flounder fish, with both eyes on one side so as to only see one side but not the other. The problem is that doctrinal minds, when elected, can say the aim is "best education" while the outcome can be production of generations of flounders. 

Hint: If uncertain - Go with the professionals, those trained and knowing, for the best chance of reaching the high aims of the Constitution. Those who study and practice the profession become better able to apply brain science to schooling, and generally are a better voting risk than those having solely an ideology to sell. How you tell the difference with a ballot ,in hand, good luck. Learn who is who. Try your best to be informed and wise, as best as you can. And not, yourself, locked into any rigid belief system - any doctrine - in judging candidates.

----------------------------- 

There is an online voter guide:  https://www.edmnvotes.org/voter-guide/

It gives endorsements for all Metro Twin City area school boards having elections this Tuesday.  

From educators to the public.  Study and practice of education leads to a .better fitness to give Board election advice. View it that way. Enjoy your ballot. It's the only school ballot you get this year.

 

Guardian reports Senate resolution against Trump tariff powers.

 Link. In part:

The US Senate took a stand against Donald Trump’s global tariffs affecting more than 100 countries on Thursday, voting to nullify the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

Four Republicans joined with all Democrats to vote 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs that the president put into place via executive order.

It was the third time the Republicans have voted alongside Democrats on a tariff resolution this week, previously rallying to end tariffs targeting Brazil and Canada.

US Senate passes bill with Republican support to block Trump tariffs on Brazil - Read more

Going against Trump is rare for Republicans in his second term. But Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined the opposition party.

The vote comes as Trump is wrapping up a week in Asia, where he struck a deal with China to lower tariffs on Chinese goods into the country and get China to buy up US soya beans, a pain point of the trade wars that had farmers on edge, among other concessions.

Despite the opposition in the Senate, the House is unlikely to take any similar action.

The economy and its health stands apart from other questionable things, Crypto and Stephen Miller for examples. Hegseth and Noem can posture, but tariffs have so strong an effect that the Senate spoke.

Also that link to a rebuke of the Brazilian situation, where the linked item notes:

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, tying them to what he has called a “witch-hunt” prosecution of his far-right ally, the former president, Jair Bolsonaro. In July, he declared a national emergency with respect to “recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil” that he said amounts to an “unusual and extraordinary threat”. Bolsonaro was convicted in September and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a military coup in 2022.

“This president has said that their prosecution of a disgraced former politician is a national emergency for the United States. How could that be?” Kaine said in advance of the vote, accusing Trump of attempting an “end-run” around Congress. “If this is a national emergency for the United States, any president of any party could say that anything is a national emergency for the United States.”

Kaine also noted that the US ran a trade surplus of nearly $7bn with Brazil last year.

That was one of the most galling things Trump did, and saying that, you get a feel for how bad it was/is.

UPDATE: Another outlet from the UK reporting. 

 

[UPDATED] Charlie Kirk got shot dead. The internet is full of podcasts about possible conspiracy. Yet --- where are the financial audits of who had what financial stake in Kirk, insurance dimensions, who were insiders and what money trail is there?

 2013, updated 2014, an AP item: https://tucson.com/news/nation-world/government-politics/article_e5d8d8c0-ed8c-5f22-a906-3dfaea00dabb.html

Mid-item :

“Any donor who thinks an organization needs $108 million for a three-state grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign is being taken advantage of,” said Erick Erickson, a nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host and frequent Trump critic. “It sounds like a grift.”

In a statement, Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet said none of the group’s leaders have inappropriately benefited from their financial arrangements. If anything, he said, many were underpaid for their talents.

“If the so-called ‘experts’ know what it takes to build successful ballot chasing teams, why are conservatives apparently so bad at it?” Kolvet said.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

That's interesting. News then, now, not mentioned. Continuing mid item near the end-

Compensation also soared, with Kirk’s climbing from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, tax records show. He bought three high-end properties, all worth over a million dollars. Millions more were paid out to a cluster of companies linked to a handful of group leaders and their allies, according to tax filings and business records.

Kolvet said that much of Kirk’s wealth was derived from his successful podcast and radio show, as well as public speaking fees, though he declined to provide earnings figures.

Yet specifics about how exactly Turning Point spends its money — and who benefits — are often difficult to discern because the IRS does not require nonprofit groups to publicly disclose detailed accounts of their expenditures. Meanwhile, many of Turning Point’s biggest vendors are limited liability companies that are registered in states that do not require public disclosure of ownership.

One branch, the Turning Point Endowment, held more than $55 million in reserve in 2022, while donors were courted to give more.

Kolvet said the money was part of Turning Point’s “50-100 year plan to continue reaching generation after generation of young Americans.” He added that the organization’s leaders were “good stewards of donor money.”

While building for the future, however, Turning Point has shown a willingness to spend lavishly.

In 2019, the group stated that its leaders would travel first-class or by charter plane, explaining later that it was sometimes needed to “ensure the uninterrupted success of the organization’s mission.”

In 2021, Turning Point sponsored a wedding reception for Kirk and his wife, Erika Frantzve, at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess luxury hotel, which was also billed as a ninth anniversary celebration and fundraiser for the organization.

Kolvet said the event was separate from the couple’s small wedding ceremony, describing it as an “elegant and gracious way for Erika and Charlie to mark a landmark in the life of TPUSA (the 9th anniversary) while also inviting a much larger group of friends and family to celebrate a landmark in their own lives.”

Other expenditures defy easy explanation.

A $999,000 payment was made to a limited liability company in Nevada for a “research project on educational outputs,” according to 2020 tax documents. The company, called Clocktower LLC, was dissolved in 2022 and the only corporate officer listed in its business filings is the president of a firm that advises on tax avoidance strategies.

That's not chump change. It's a cashflow feeding many. The entire article should interest readers. Yet, now, with a dead Charlie nobody's talking money trail. Kash and Pam seem to have a perp and have shut things down without any forensic audits of anything or anybody. Nothing to see there, move on? Huh?

Ending paragraph of that years-earlier item:

“Any insinuation that anyone” at Turning Point “benefited from this is defamatory,” Kolvet said. 

That was a statement in a context, but it sure as hell fits today. WTF happened to follow the money?

Here is a YouTube of Charlie's chief-of-staff, (that likely having been a well compensated post), and was there a preacher McCoy's other son, a brother to Michael in TPUSA, well compensated leadership? With a role, of some kind, in the organization, before and after the shooting,  with what functions, responsibilities, powers, benefits and persona? Or not? These are basic questions of organizational structure and beneficial interests, which change however, after the publicity and fact of Charlie Kirk being shot dead on YouTube. 

Presuming there's money, now greater or not than 2013-14, FOLLOW IT, ALREADY!

That is basic Investigation 101 so who's doing it? 

------------------

BASIC QUESTIONS: Who takes over this cash cow, what person, persons, or group with money sloshing around, and what's the potential cash flow in the future, with all this current publicity? I don't know, but I know there's no harm in asking. What are the interrelationships of key people? Who gains, who doesn't?

All for now on this topic and related coverage. But it might show motive to remove Charlie, depending upon what inquiry yields.

________________UPDATE______________

Got it! Found on a web video, Ian Carroll, where about 2-1/2 min into the item, there is a Justin mentioned by Pastor McCoy. The pastor on a video clip loaded by Carroll, from some other resource unknown to Crabgrass.

Of interest? Crabgrass judges it so. All I know is what I find on the web.

FURTHER: One site, two items, here and here, one of which embedded the Carroll video. 

More in future posting, maybe. 

FURTHER: We'll see whether Charlie had left a will which will surface, or not. There was a ton of money sloshing around, so, we'll have to wait, but the answer exists and will surface. Was there a trust for the children set up, as you'd expect in big buck estate planning?

FURTHER: The widow says the show goes on. View the full statement she made. It should be profitable. There seems ambition to the voice, yet different persons will see her speech differently. I saw it as less rather than more. She is now the CEO of the show.

 FURTHER: Grief - https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1764917/erika-kirk-jd-vance.webp

FURTHER: The show must go on. A quick new event, Charlie gone, Erika feathred. The operation has new momentum. Bigger? Better? A business plan, JD with a place in things, for now, for later?

"Charlie's gone, so what do we go next," one of the interviewees says, "Fight, fight, fight." "Someone else caputured the energy . .  ." "Membership is balloning . . .".

FURTHER: To Crabgrass, Charlie Kirk and TPUSA - before the shooting, some guy in Arizona, a Christian Nationalist Trump supporter, so what? Now, a martyr. 

It is admitted, Crabgrass was not attuned to Right wing media, being interested instead in the Bernie AOC Oligarchy tour facts.etc., instead. But now, one thing has to be said, emphatically, Kirk zeroed in on how the young are being screwed by greed and politics as usual leading them into debt slavery. 

Refinding the story - This is not an after shooting whodunit. It is where, after the shooting made me pay attention enough to ask, what made Charlie Kirk effective? With Gen Z as they are called, in college, costing a lot and so what's the payout, where does it lead? With no college, AI looming as a job killer, where does that lead? Important things needed to be understood by readers and those with power.

This will end the post. Because there is no way of knowing where the money machine TPUSA is set to become under Erika Kirk ownership and management, new directions being in a future where nobody has a crystal ball to say. Start with the quick intro article, then the beginning part of the full video. 

And say it now, the full session video has a part where Tucker goes vile on "boomers" as selfish. Tucker grew up in relative affluence and the boomers he criticizes are those he's seen and been with, i.e., those of equal affluence, those not drafted int Vietnam, those (like the Clintons)  not left by others of their generation to hang, but rather those Tucker might be more familiar with who did okay without a thought to the future they were leaving, nor to the others of their generation they were leaving out of any comfort or doing well. There are two parts to the boomer generation, some hanging on, some who got coopted from '60s moods and some who didn't. Too many were abandoned by the cooptees and their mentors.

That anti-boomer rant is near the end of the full video, and also missing from the video is the part immediately follow the linked segment, which is where Kirk warned conservatives should care because the situation is untenable and if it continues to be dismissed as "they should manage a budget better," then things will come to an unstable crunch, far harder on the country than if the situation is faced now and fixed as much as possible while facing billionaire and millionaire greed for lower taxes and deficit spending. Kirk warned that the situation was a disequilibrium with possible grave consequences.

I could not relocate the full video. Only this part, which is enough of the nub of things showing Kirk was not a lightweight right wing Chritian proselytizer only, as I'd preemptively dismissed him before the shooting and before delving deeper. 

That said, as a caveat about the missing stuff from the later part of the full session's video - Here's the stuff. An MSN carried descritive report. The video. Don't take all of the MSN item too seriously, and do watch the video part.

Respectively titled -

Charlie Kirk Slams Buy Now Pay Later As 'Predatory' — Podcaster Warns Gen Z Is 'Financing Their Coachella Tickets' Without Guardrails 

 and

Charlie Kirk Exposes the Debt Trap Enslaving 60% of Gen Z 

When/if I rediscover the link for the full Tucker/Charlie item the post will have that update added, otherwise, this ends it. That caveat is not to minimize the two linked items. Read and watch!!

 Another online Kirk on campus pre-shooting video worth the time to watch it:

Prove me Wrong: College is a Scam 

 Crabgrass undergraduate years remain treasured, before entering "the real world," but not as a career path necessity or boost, but for having leavened the mind. Kirk never sought/earned a degree, but had capabilities that served him well financially, and he enjoyed living. Some of his politics and God/Jesus/afterlife notions are not compatible with the Crabgrass view of things, but he was not a lightweight. That part I'd earlier misunderstood. Christian societal cohesion can be good and helpful to living a happy life among others, apart from doctrine. Some churches do good. Some don't.

There might be further posting about post-shooting stuff as news happens. IF SO =- It will be via separate new posts. not by any further updating here, (beyond possibly adding a link to the full Tucker/Charlie item - as already noted). 

6:12 PM CST (UTC-6) --Sunday, November 2, 2025 -- 

 Here is the link to the full Tucker/Charlie segment, and here is an index of topics, by title and time into the video. Not all segments agree with Crabgrass thinking, but this threesome is spot on:

(23:04) What Issues Do Gen Z Really Care About?

(28:51) The New Financial Scam Secretly Enslaving Gen Z

(43:10) The Oncoming Radical Movement That Will Change the US Forever

As the full index notes, topics varied, but many readers may want to view it all. 

please pay attention to Gen-Z - they inherit and face what our current system lays upon them

-- THE END -- 

 

 

 

 

 

How's this for headlining?

https://www.startribune.com/former-minneapolis-city-council-member-arrested-suspected-of-driving-under-the-influence/601511831 

 Screen capture =

Right, first paragraph of the report does say "driving while . . ."

From the adroit headlining, she could have been standing on the sidewalk hammering on somebody's car with a hard object or her fist. DUI, and boy, that mug shot does show bleary eyes, a standard eigen description of police reports everywhere, car smelled of alcohol, slurred speech, etc. She really looks as if she's had a real snoot full of something, but not a stimulant. 

And either the nose ring was removed for the mugshot or she ditched it between pics.

Yes, the headline does imply an arrest, and therefore DUI implied, but say it. Don't headline like the way it was done if you pretend to be a statewide major newspaper in print and in the online world. That headline is below grade; subpar.

Bonus. Yes, creepy-geeky, but it was 1963 and proof Baez and Dylan had not much competition back then. This is better.

__________________UPDATE___________________

Here is a bonus MSM report about Trump. And about law and order, but not what you might expect. Related. These judges do have a hammer. Gavel, hammer, similar at least.

And all this other stuff is happening when the Trump Shutdown is the big story, the big hurt to the people.

____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________

Left.mn keeps at it, most recently Dan Burns posted.

 

 

The Trump wife is showing an intent toward SLAPP suing Hunter Biden too. For a billion bucks.

 USA Today ---

Why is Melania Trump threatening to sue Hunter Biden? Here's her story on meeting Donald

Kinsey Crowley Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

USA TODAY NETWORK

• Hunter Biden claims Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump, a claim Melania Trump denies.
• Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden if he doesn't retract his claim.
• Trump maintains she met her husband at a New York City nightclub in 1998.

First lady Melania Trump and former President Joe Biden's son are feuding over different accounts of how she met Donald Trump.

[...] The first lady on Aug. 6 threatened to sue for more than $1 billion if he didn't retract the claim, and Biden said in a follow up video, “F--- that. That’s not going to happen."  

[...] On Aug. 6, the first lady threatened to sue Biden for more than $1 billion if he doesn’t retract the claim.

The legal notice by Alejandro Brito, the first lady’s lawyer, demands that Biden "immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump."

Donald Trump said he encouraged his wife's legal action against Biden.

"Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania," Trump said August. 14, during an interview with Fox Radio's Brian Kilmeade. "But they do that to demean. I told her to go ahead and do it. She was very upset about it."

Other outlets have also received notices from Melania Trump's lawyer over similar claims and issued apologies and retractions. But Biden doesn't seem poised to back down.

Same lawyer as sent the SLAPP letter to Michael Wolff. Brito. Reminds me of a brillo pad.

It's not worth the time to track down online copies of the Wolff letter and the Biden letter, but the Crabgrass guess is only names were changed, otherwise same SLAPP letter, same Donald behind it, same bullshit aimed to distance from the Epstein file. You, Donald, own the Epstein files, and allegedly Bondi told you you're in them, and there's no SLAPP claim that will change that. And using the wife as a weapon is shabby. Weaponize the wife - it rings pretty bad, and not well thought out, but we'll see. The New York state courts have the litigation started, Crabgrass opinion is Wolff is right, it's a SLAPP, and time will tell.

As to what's a SLAPP, or a threatned one, under New York law, readers can research that all they want.

With a layman's understanding, after reading a book about SLAPP lawsuits, Crabgrass' guess is it's one. Or the threat to push one, costing a defendant what it will. A billion? Is the Trump wife's reputation worth that? Opinions can range between yes and no, without guessing what the reputation is worth. Melania seems several cuts better than her spouse, but I'd not want to try to do dollar valuations. Melania is likeable.

The claim Melania challenges, mainly, is that she/Donald are unhappy with anyone saying Epstein introduced one to the other. A chance meeting at Kit Kat Club, they say, not Jeffrey. The USAToday item spells it all out, Melania/Donald version.

More coverage, here and here. It seems the Trump Shutdown is a bigger story. More people suffering real and actual injury.

 

 

All news is local. Strib publishes, "Roper: How the ‘slate for change’ could upend the Minneapolis mayoral election An alliance between Jacob Frey’s challengers may prove significant in the ranked-choice election." - By Eric Roper - The Minnesota Star Tribune - October 29, 2025

Keeping it tight - There are four candidates for  mayor of Minneapolis. One is the incumbent, not respected by Crabgrass, but somebody liked him since he's now in the seat, challenged by three others.

Frey, the incumbent has name recognition, being generally favored  by ranked-choice voting, as a second or third choice because people know the name. To overcome that, the other three have formed a slate, a bloc saying "Rank Us." One, Omar Fateh, got the city convention's endorsement, but by politics the State Dems pulled it - probably because they like Frey, as a middle road waffle.

So, for any reader who votes in that election, Crabgrass not being there -

 

image from within strib report: https://www.startribune.com/omar-fateh-dewayne-davis-jazz-hampton-slate-for-change-minneapolis/601508381

Let Frey retire to raising Black Orchids, or some such. Put in progress, sweep out detritus. Crabgrass goes with the endorsement, if ranked-choice voting; Fateh first. the others 2 and 3, and Frey not anywhere at all on the ballot.

  Because of incumbency, with its name recognition, putting Frey anywhere on the ballot enhances the chance he'd again get the seat while progressive options exist. Frey is a dweeb. Full of himself, over-prone to use the veto to override will of the Council. Swell-headed that way.

Worth noting, Crabgrass, in the Strib headline quoted in the Crabgrass headline would replace the word "upend" at least with a neutral "change" or more favorably, "reform" with its two meanings of forming anew, and improving. Did I say, Frey is a dweeb? He is. 

Also worth noting - all four candidates are running as Democrats, if the local GOP dredges up some candidate it would be irrelevant. Only Dems win within that particular urban setting - citywide. Some council seats fall into bad hands, but the Republicans are always a  backwater few. With Dems holding the majority, and the mayoral seat. 

Get Frey out of there, and see the difference improvement. Opinions will vary. 

.

MTG is on the warpath. Not that it is an unusual thing. But it is newsworthy. MSN carries the story.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/greene-says-johnson-refused-to-share-health-care-plans-on-gop-conference-call/ar-AA1PmuPg 

The item includes a video, and text about the Georgia Congresscritter, and a real mean copyright statement so the excerpt is short and readers are exhorted to go to the original MSM linked item. Briefly -

 [video omitted]

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday called out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for not providing any plans on a Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and tax subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

“You left out that I said I have no respect for the House not being in session passing our bills and the President’s executive orders,” Greene wrote on social platform X, in response to a post from Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman following a recent GOP conference call.

“And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for healthcare is to build the off-ramp off Obamacare and the ACA tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans,” she added.

“Johnson said he’s got ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call,” the Georgia Republican continued.  

[,,,] The comments come after Johnson said Monday that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was working with the heads of three committees to develop a Republican health care plan.

Greene and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have been among Republicans who see health care premiums as being a serious risk to their campaigns in the 2026 midterms.

[...] 

According to a recent poll sponsored by Undue Medical Debt and led by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem, 69 percent of respondents believe health care is too expensive.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Well, leaving the video and analysis out but only excerpting their direct quoting, the poll included, and acknowledging the copyright statement by presenting it; fair use. Read it all at MSM. So, big copyright chestbeating while it's mostly quoting from Greene's X post, get real, live with fair use by Crabgrass.

UPDATE: While the noted/quoted item above omitted linking about Josh Hawley's backfilling, there is NBC:

After voting for Trump's megabill, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley wants to prevent a key Medicaid cut from taking effect

As Republicans face criticism for slashing Medicaid, Hawley tried to shift the focus to a less-noticed part of the law that will benefit victims of nuclear waste.

Hawley, on his congressional site, https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-op-ed-dont-cut-medicaid/ - spends much disingenuous text repudiating one of the major provisions of the bill he voted for, to cover his ass, apparently, as he mixes in dissing the dems and touting Trump. (NOT worth reader time).

HAZELWOOD, Mo. — Four days after President Donald Trump signed his “big, beautiful bill” into law, one of the Republicans who voted for it wasn’t interested in touting the measure’s high-profile tax, immigration or health care provisions.

Instead, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., held an event here Tuesday centered on a less-noticed part of the nearly 1,000-page bill: an expanded fund for victims of nuclear waste, a bipartisan issue he worked for years to get across the finish line.

And when asked about the steep Medicaid cuts in the bill, Hawley continued to criticize them. Hawley said his “goal” is to ensure the provider tax changes, which will limit state reimbursement for Medicaid, don't go into effect in Missouri in 2030 — even as he helped to pass a piece of legislation that will do just that.

It illustrates the challenges Republicans face as they turn their attention to selling to the public the massive bill they’ve been working on for months, ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

“I think that if Republicans don’t come out strong and say we’re going to protect rural hospitals, then, yeah, I think voters aren’t going to like that,” Hawley told NBC News in an interview at St. Cin Park. “The truth of the matter is, we shouldn’t be cutting rural hospitals. I’m completely opposed to cutting rural hospitals period. I haven’t changed my view on that one iota.”

Hawley suggested he would work with Democrats to cut prescription drug pricing, a priority Trump has said he wants Congress to focus on, to pay for the tax cuts made permanent by the new law.

[UPDATE] Hawley, on record, "Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs. More than that, our voters depend on those programs. And there’s a reason for this that Republicans would do well to ponder. Our economy is increasingly unfriendly to working people and their families." [end UPDATE - highlighting added] 

On the topic of health care, MSM has reported: Many voters say health care unaffordable, are open to new insurance system: Poll - the item stating in part -

New polling has found that the majority of voters say health care in the U.S. is unaffordable and are open to a health insurance system that doesn’t tie coverage to employment.

Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that works to eliminate medical debt and supports policies to prevent new debt, sponsored the poll, which was led by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem. Along with a national survey, focus groups were also asked for their opinions on health care.

The poll was provided first to The Hill.

So, while the first quoted item negligently declined to link to the poll, we now have it:  https://unduemedicaldebt.org/bipartisan-support-for-policies-that-protect-people-from-medical-debt/ - stating in part:

Voters Show Strong Bipartisan Support for Policies that Protect People from Medical Debt - New Study —

October 2025A new study sponsored by Undue Medical Debt finds that 2024 voters across party ID (Republicans, Independents and Democrats) agree that healthcare is unaffordable and health insurance coverage is failing people.  

Many respondents are under intense economic stress, and the high cost of healthcare is adding to the pressure. An overwhelming majority of voters recognize medical debt as a real and persistent threat — even those not experiencing a financial burden. For this reason, there is broad bipartisan support for states to pass commonsense laws that protect people from medical debt and associated burdens when they access healthcare. 

The goal of this study is to identify common ground among people of all political affiliations and backgrounds when it comes to protecting patients from medical debt. PerryUndem, a non-partisan research firm, conducted a series of focus groups and a survey. The following are insights from this research. 

About the Study

The study involved a 12-minute national survey of 1,319 2024 general election voters. The survey was fielded online from August 21 to September 2, 2025, using NORC’s nationally representative AmeriSpeak panel. The margin of sampling error for total survey results is ± 3.63 percentage points. 

Download Study

The remainder of that item is quality content, so read it there. At this point, the study is well presented in this item and in the "Download Study" linked item, so Crabgrass readers are strongly urged to follow the link after reading the balance of this item, as linked to earlier. As worthy of copyright protection, deference is given the study; no excerpt, read it all on the copyright holder's site.  They deserve the full hit-count readers will provide, if readers do rotor over. 

FURTHER: Title of Study - Healthcare Affordability and Medical Debt - Findings from a National Study of 2024 Voters 

[Copyright is a thicket since it seems "fair use" is in the eye of the beholder. And copyright can be a fertile field for SLAPP litigation, big guy deep-pocketing little guy, via  Stretegic Litigation Against Public Participation. 

Leave it at that.]